Yes-not by choice, In most markets back them customers only bought options. We could decide at what price and how many before we moved out markets.
So you are around 60 by now? You should definitely chime in the thread with the kid looking for advise what to do after college graduation and share your wisdom how being in the market is NOT a good idea for his life. I think he could benefit from your wisdom.
I've seen this lack of skew mentioned before. A little googling reminded where I saw it last: see p 227 of the 2004 edition of My Life as a Quant by Derman.
And today thanks to the Robinhood type traders, we see a skew in the right tail. Below is a graph of 5 delta IV divided by 75 delta 30 day IV for the components of the S&P, we denote SPY_C in our wheel.orats.com online platform: https://gyazo.com/608d1eaa78dc96fbd9cf7ed7fcd6ed6f
In "87" I could do a covered call on a boring stock. I would then take that money and put into a money market account earning maybe 5-8%. I wasn't too worried about that crash if I recall. If rates rise again, that "might" be a way to generate extra income...
why do you think that is/what do you see? Because retail is trying to bet on convexity or because they sell near atm and buy 5 delta?
I think it is basic. They want to participate in the bull market on these names. They buy calls at low prices. Gamification.